The invention relates to improvements in lift truck cabs and, in particular, to an improved windshield wiper drive arrangement for such cabs.
Cabs for industrial lift trucks afford protection to the operator from weather, dust, and other adverse environmental conditions. Typically, such cabs are fitted with large window areas to provide a high degree of visibility to the operator for both driving the vehicle through restricted paths and manipulating a load on and off the lift forks. It is customary to provide a single windshield wiper and motor drive adjacent the center of the upper region of a windshield so that it sweeps a central symmetrical area of the windshield. The physical size of a conventional wiper motor and gear drive is large in comparison to a typical cross-tie tube element used as a header across the upper edge of the windshield. As a result, in prior lift truck cabs, the wiper motor assembly often obstructs the operator's upper field of vision.
An arrangement where the pivot shaft for the wiper arm extends under the cross-tie tube presents other disadvantages in addition to direct obstruction of the view. If a front panel area below the cross-tie member is provided for carrying the pivot shaft, and such panel area is extended horizontally, the panel area contributes significantly to the loss of upper field vision. If the front panel area below the cross-tie carrying the pivot shaft is profiled to increase visibility, manufacturing expense is increased because of the complexities introduced by cutting the windshield glass on an irregular line.